Hiring, Branding, And The Secret Of Eternal (Brand) Life
There are three types of brands that dominate the space we live in.
First, we have the newly-successful brands. The newbies, the upcomers, the brainchildren of gifted entrepreneurs and discerning venture capitalists. I'm talking about things like Lyft, Uber, Instagram, Square, PayPal, etc.
Many of these brands are hot and exciting, but many of them won't stick. There just isn't enough room for everyone, and new, disruptive brands are always coming out of the woodwork. How many people are still using Napster, for instance?
Second, we have the old giants: Ford, Pepsi, Coke, Disney,
(“I don't know, let me google that . . .”).
And then there's a third, awkward category: the brands that are in transition from the first group to the second one. No one wants to be here for long—you have none of the advantages of the new, hot products, and none of the staying power of the older, established brands.
Eternal Life And The Brands That Stick
So how do you take your brand from “hot new item” to “household name” without foundering in between?
Answer: you look at how the others have done it. And at the core of every brand that has “made the jump,” there's a unique set of values that set it apart. These values may have been instilled by a founding member or group, but they've grown larger than any single person and live on despite changing personnel or employees.
That's what a brand is. As long as those values are unique, valuable, and well-communicated to your customers your brand will continue to survive. When you stray from them, you'll have to either re-brand or start over.
And every hire you make will either build your brand or tear it down.
Rock Band HR
The music industry is a field dominated by quick-to-rise, fast-to-fall personal branding (they coined the phrase “one-hit-wonder, after all), and so it's one of my favorite places to look for longevity success stories. This week's example is the Little River Band, an Australian rock band founded back in 1975.
With performance responsibilities now in the hands of American bassist, vocalist, and long-time member Wayne Nelson, they perform around 100 live shows every year and are going into their 40th year stronger than ever. Clearly something is working for them!
“I've been with the band since 1980, and we've always had a very unique, personal sound. Lots of vocals, mixed together—not lead and backups, all together—a style right out of the 70s and 80s,” says Nelson, when asked what makes the Little River Band unique. “At this point, we've got several generations of fans. They get passed on generation to generation, just like our sound has been.”
The sound of the Little River Band has remained unique and distinctive despite numerous changes in personnel over the years. Nelson screens new members carefully to make sure that they'll blend well with the band's ethos and artistic vision. It's this careful attention to the hiring process and the brand's unique qualities (coupled with an open-minded marketing approach that's embraced social media) that's led to their continued success and longevity.
Auditioning Your Employees
If you're trying to build a brand that's going to stick around (and I hope you are!), then think about your hiring choices like auditions.
The important question to ask is always: “Does this person contribute to the brand that we've built?” For instance, if you've built a quirky, boutique store brand, then you need to hire someone who isn't afraid to bring their own personality into interactions with your customers. On the other hand, if you run a financial consulting firm, you probably want someone who will exhibit a more businesslike, professional demeanor. You get the idea.
And if you're running a large organization, it's absolutely vital that your HR team understands the brand that you're building. Otherwise their hiring decisions aren't going to make any sense.
Not a single founding member of the Little River Band is still in the group, and yet it enjoys a large, diverse, and still-growing fanbase. “The musical qualities at the heart of the Little River Band never change,” says Nelson, “even though the founding guys have left. The sound is larger than any individual, and if we didn't understand that then the band would've died 20 years ago. That's 20 years of music that wouldn't have happened otherwise.”
If you build your brand right, it will live on just the same.
